Digitalis Old English folklore said that foxes wore the flowers on their paws to silence movement and stealthily stalk prey. Healing, pain, insincerity, insecurity
[oh this is actually somehow so much worse but also fits the puzzle pieces of what aerith's deduced. she doesn't get to greet him, and instead she watches in silence. everything happens quickly, and there's a series of emotions she's all too familiar with. wanting to be with someone but separated by military duty. waiting for the day you could be together again. finding that that day will never come. losing someone important, because of things others have done to them and things you couldn't stop. being left alone in a cold, empty world.
they aren't all emotions or experiences she's felt in that order, but it's enough to sort of understand why, exactly, daan reacts and behaves in the way that he does.
when there's nothing left...and even when you try to find answers, you find yourself falling into a trap. she recognizes the name of the city as the one he's told her about, the one he was heading to before he was pulled into a situation not entirely unlike this one.
and when the memory finally fades, she's left looking at him in equal parts sympathy, curiosity, and a little understanding.]
...sometimes when it happens all at once, you can't even really know how to feel. Can you?
[ There's a long silence when it winds down, his expression one of a deeply-seated shock, dread, and despair way more raw than anything he'd shown so far, like having to see this all play out again has just cracked him wide open.
And then it fades away into an open and bare exhaustion and emptiness as he raises a hand to absently rub at his patched eye. ]
[she's not sure which is worse, actually. seeing the raw anguish, or seeing the depletion of life from his eyes. eye. i guess.]
...we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. [she prefaces it with this, but.] But...maybe it could help. At least to sort through how these things have changed you.
[ To outright outline how 'these things have changed [him]'. ]
That quest for answers is pretty much the only thing driving my feet forward at this point, you understand... though I guess, trying to keep all of you in one piece each is also something.
Oh. I'm sorry. [genuinely, because maybe it was presumptuous to say that tragedy changed him, but...how could it not, really? one day you think your life is finally improving and you've managed to deal with all circumstances, and the next you come plummeting back down to earth. nevertheless, she doesn't look away.]
I never said the quest had to stop, Daan. Nothing wrong with adding something else either.
[ Maybe, maybe not. He's not sure if he has the capacity to right now, and his head is too full of static and worms that he hasn't had the time to sort because he's in MURDER CULT GAME ROUND TWO. ]
[i wish i could say this is unusual but no she has someone whose head is also full of static and worms so she's just...taking a moment to decide what thread to try and pull. what she should say to try and reach him when he's seemingly lost in nothing.]
...this is what you meant before, isn't it. About everything having a cost.
[ You can give me whatever you feel like idm spoilers literally I have seen so much FF7R and yet somehow manage to understand nothing about what the game is about but I have osmosis'd certain things about it anyway since FF7 has a lot of classic SQEX staples like Ancients and stuff anyway. ]
Offering things for a deal only works if the deal is actually on the table...
[ And sometimes, maybe you knew that deep inside, but you went so mad with grief that you had to try. Anything. ]
[ The... very recent past. I think she already got that lore but she'll be able to get a loose timeframe that the last part happened like, maybe a week or two before he ended up in Scawwy. ]
...it's in the past. And what's in the past may be set, but the future can be changed. That's something to remember.
[she does, in fact, know it's the very recent past. daan has told her as much, and it still breaks her heart a little to think that he really has just run the gauntlet of awful shit. but before she can express further sympathies, something occurs until 3:28:28, minus whatever's going on with zack in the middle, she doesn't know that.]
[ I love that I keep having to say this about the FF7Rs and the DGMs but like. Daan's world is occasionally a little weird and everything that happened in Prehevil was buck-wild, but nothing about it was strictly high fantasy. So, this asshole just descending from the sky with a seven-foot sword and going destiny comes is crazy.
Aerith, stopping Cloud from walking into a weird maelstrom of darkness, and ominously going This is the point of no return. Destiny's crossroads. Freedom. is also crazy. But he won't say that to her out loud. ]
...
A lot of what I'm dealing with is pretty personal, but...
Looks like you've got way more resting on your shoulders.
[okay but to be fair this is also extremely crazy for them too. sephiroth is not the norm. none of this is what they expected here. so she would agree! very crazy, do not recommend.
but she takes a breath and squares her shoulders, standing up a little straighter with her hands behind her back.]
...that's our main goal right now. Stopping him. It's why we left Midgar and why we're chasing him down before he can really hurt the planet.
If it helps, we're not entirely sure we understand all of it either. But from what we do understand, currently, he's going to use a materia orb to wound the planet so badly that when it tries to heal itself he'll be able to seize control of it and create a forever.
[normal things! but she nods slowly.]
...I've always been able to. Ever since I was little. I could hear the planet and touch her. And sometimes...I could hear the people who were lost. Deliver messages. We have to do our best to listen to them, or we'll lose something important.
[ Such a big yike, dude. He's glad there's nobody that insane in his world. (The first game had a guy create a half-god spawn with a New God in an attempt to nurture a new god born of mortal roots for humanity, and also turned into a level of New God himself by implication because both he and the God of Fear and Hunger exist in the sequel. However this is history and legend for Daan that he doesn't really know that much about so you know, fuck it.) ]
What do they call those kinds of people... seeresses? Oracles?
Usually I'd consider being able to hear intangible voices a curse... but what do you think?
[the fuck is going on with his canon i'm so alarmed. he really is just a guy.]
I'm a Cetra. The...only one left, actually. [just to make everything worse.] I think my blood's been both a blessing and a curse, but it's just who I am. I was never going to be normal no matter how hard I tried to ignore everything I could hear. So eventually I just started to try to embrace it. Sometimes she doesn't always speak to me, but other times it's easier to be able to sense all of the pain and anger in a place or feel a connection.
[ The first game leaned a lot more significantly into the medieval gods and bloodshed sort of aspect. It's just a lot worse in the grimdark department in general. That should tell you the bar we're working with. ]
but since she can't read the meta, she can only hear what he says. and what he says hits right on the mark, her hands coming up to clasp in front of her almost subconsciously.]
It was. [is? both, really.] Even now, sometimes, there are things people talk about that I know I was never going to be able to have, or never thought I could. But it's okay. After meeting everyone else...knowing them, and growing to love them...it felt worth it. Everything that's happened up until now.
[this man is so sad, and so many horrible things have happened to him in such quick succession that she thinks it isn't her place to continue. but she does anyway because...maybe that would help, too.]
Meeting people here and learning more about them means I'm finding new things I know I'll never be able to quite relate to. But...I want to try to understand it all. I want to help everyone I can, however I can. Even if it just means acknowledging those things everyone's gone through.
[ 'It felt worth it'. It's a nice sentiment and he's glad Aerith is able to say something like that. ]
You've found a place to be despite it, Ms. Gainsborough. It's a good thing. And with your numbers, I'm certain you'll find a solution to your predicament.
I hope so. [will THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP be enough to beat sephiroth? stay tuned.] ...we fought against him right before we got here. Sephiroth, that is. He fled before we could stop him, but he knows it isn't over between us. It's why I have to make sure Cloud and Yuffie get back.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
W2, monday
Anyway, hi Aerith. He would have given her a decent greeting, but the shadows can get their asses and show her a pretty long-winded memory. ]
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they aren't all emotions or experiences she's felt in that order, but it's enough to sort of understand why, exactly, daan reacts and behaves in the way that he does.
when there's nothing left...and even when you try to find answers, you find yourself falling into a trap. she recognizes the name of the city as the one he's told her about, the one he was heading to before he was pulled into a situation not entirely unlike this one.
and when the memory finally fades, she's left looking at him in equal parts sympathy, curiosity, and a little understanding.]
...sometimes when it happens all at once, you can't even really know how to feel. Can you?
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And then it fades away into an open and bare exhaustion and emptiness as he raises a hand to absently rub at his patched eye. ]
...
No.
I still don't.
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...we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. [she prefaces it with this, but.] But...maybe it could help. At least to sort through how these things have changed you.
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[ To outright outline how 'these things have changed [him]'. ]
That quest for answers is pretty much the only thing driving my feet forward at this point, you understand... though I guess, trying to keep all of you in one piece each is also something.
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Oh. I'm sorry. [genuinely, because maybe it was presumptuous to say that tragedy changed him, but...how could it not, really? one day you think your life is finally improving and you've managed to deal with all circumstances, and the next you come plummeting back down to earth. nevertheless, she doesn't look away.]
I never said the quest had to stop, Daan. Nothing wrong with adding something else either.
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I'll think about it.
[ Maybe, maybe not. He's not sure if he has the capacity to right now, and his head is too full of static and worms that he hasn't had the time to sort because he's in MURDER CULT GAME ROUND TWO. ]
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...this is what you meant before, isn't it. About everything having a cost.
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Part of it, yeah. Didn't get anything out of it, being the only problem, but. I wouldn't say it's unrelated to the whole concept.
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...even with everything you gave?
[that is actually less fair. also lowe lmk what you want as a mem in exchange in terms of tone/if spoilers are ok etc.]
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Offering things for a deal only works if the deal is actually on the table...
[ And sometimes, maybe you knew that deep inside, but you went so mad with grief that you had to try. Anything. ]
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But you won't know if a deal is on the table if you don't try. [it's a catch-22, she thinks.] And an offer might make a deal more plausible.
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...
Anyway, what's done is done. It's in the past.
[ The... very recent past. I think she already got that lore but she'll be able to get a loose timeframe that the last part happened like, maybe a week or two before he ended up in Scawwy. ]
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[she does, in fact, know it's the very recent past. daan has told her as much, and it still breaks her heart a little to think that he really has just run the gauntlet of awful shit. but before she can express further sympathies, something occurs until 3:28:28, minus whatever's going on with zack in the middle, she doesn't know that.]
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Aerith, stopping Cloud from walking into a weird maelstrom of darkness, and ominously going This is the point of no return. Destiny's crossroads. Freedom. is also crazy. But he won't say that to her out loud. ]
...
A lot of what I'm dealing with is pretty personal, but...
Looks like you've got way more resting on your shoulders.
[ I almost wrote soldiers. ]
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but she takes a breath and squares her shoulders, standing up a little straighter with her hands behind her back.]
...that's our main goal right now. Stopping him. It's why we left Midgar and why we're chasing him down before he can really hurt the planet.
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But it's nice of you to listen to those voices and speak up for them when nobody else can hear them.
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[normal things! but she nods slowly.]
...I've always been able to. Ever since I was little. I could hear the planet and touch her. And sometimes...I could hear the people who were lost. Deliver messages. We have to do our best to listen to them, or we'll lose something important.
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What do they call those kinds of people... seeresses? Oracles?
Usually I'd consider being able to hear intangible voices a curse... but what do you think?
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I'm a Cetra. The...only one left, actually. [just to make everything worse.] I think my blood's been both a blessing and a curse, but it's just who I am. I was never going to be normal no matter how hard I tried to ignore everything I could hear. So eventually I just started to try to embrace it. Sometimes she doesn't always speak to me, but other times it's easier to be able to sense all of the pain and anger in a place or feel a connection.
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I see.
It must be lonely.
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but since she can't read the meta, she can only hear what he says. and what he says hits right on the mark, her hands coming up to clasp in front of her almost subconsciously.]
It was. [is? both, really.] Even now, sometimes, there are things people talk about that I know I was never going to be able to have, or never thought I could. But it's okay. After meeting everyone else...knowing them, and growing to love them...it felt worth it. Everything that's happened up until now.
[this man is so sad, and so many horrible things have happened to him in such quick succession that she thinks it isn't her place to continue. but she does anyway because...maybe that would help, too.]
Meeting people here and learning more about them means I'm finding new things I know I'll never be able to quite relate to. But...I want to try to understand it all. I want to help everyone I can, however I can. Even if it just means acknowledging those things everyone's gone through.
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You've found a place to be despite it, Ms. Gainsborough. It's a good thing. And with your numbers, I'm certain you'll find a solution to your predicament.
[ Your POWER OF FRIENDSHIP group feat. Yuffie. ]
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That makes sense. I hope you can return as well.
...
Obviously, what I can do is pretty limited in this place, but... however way I can help.
[ At least maybe you guys won't die of like. An untreated wound. ]
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